Every child who arrives in this world brings something that cannot be manufactured, purchased, or replicated.
A unique set of gifts. A particular way of seeing. A specific capacity for something — perhaps something that has never existed in quite this combination before, in quite this person, in quite this moment in history.
Each child is unique. Babies arrive with traits and talents waiting in a raw state of potential. Young people have an inborn drive to explore their possibilities.
This is not poetry. This is developmental reality.
And yet — somewhere between birth and adulthood — something happens to most of those gifts. They are not destroyed. They are not lost. They are clipped.
Not cruelly. Not deliberately. But systematically — by a world that knows how to measure certain things and struggles to value what it cannot measure.
This blog is about the wings every child was born with. And about the one thing parents can do — above all others — to ensure those wings are given the space to open.
What Islam Tells Us — Before the Research
Before any researcher picked up a pen — Allah ﷻ had already established something foundational about every human being:
Allah ﷻ says:
“We have certainly created man in the best of stature.” (Surah At-Tin, 95:4)
Not some human beings. Not the academically gifted ones. Not the ones who score well on examinations.
Every human being — created in the best of stature. With dignity, with potential, with a unique capacity that belongs to them alone.
The great Sufi poet Jalal ud-Din Rumi captured this truth in a single image:
“Jab Allah ne tumhein urnay ke liye par diye hain — toh cheenti ki tarah reingty kyun ho?”
“When Allah has given you wings to fly — why do you crawl like an ant?”
This wisdom was shared with a new generation by Imran Khan — a leader who repeatedly conveyed Rumi’s message to the people of Pakistan — reminding them that Allah had not created them to live small, to crawl, to settle for less than what they were made for.
He conveyed to his nation:
“Apni potential pehchano. Allah ne tumhein urnay ke liye banaya hai — cheenti ki tarah mat jiyo.”
“Know your potential. Allah made you to soar — do not live like an ant.”
When a leader speaks these words to a nation — and when a parent lives these words with their child — the message is the same:
You were not made to crawl. You were made to fly.
What Research Has Discovered — The Science of Wings
Modern research has spent decades confirming what divine wisdom established at the beginning:
Children’s talents are natural gifts they are born with, waiting to be discovered and nurtured so they can grow and flourish. A talented child is a treasure waiting to be discovered, and often the first signs of children’s talents are subtle, requiring a keen eye to notice.
What we often don’t recognise is that what appears as an idiosyncrasy or even a problem in a child may actually indicate their gift. As James Hillman explains — the entire image of a destiny is packed into a tiny acorn, the seed of a huge oak on small shoulders.
The acorn and the oak.
The child in front of you — with all their quirks, their intensity, their stubbornness, their unusual interests — may be carrying something extraordinary. Not despite who they are, but because of who they are.
Research shows that academic performance is not a good indicator of talent or success in life. The grade is not the gift. The mark is not the measure.
How Wings Get Clipped — What Parents Do Without Knowing
The clipping of a child’s wings is almost never an act of cruelty. It is almost always an act of love — a love that is afraid.
It sounds like:
“Be realistic — that’s not a real career”
“Stop wasting time on that — focus on your studies”
“Why can’t you be more like…?”
“You’re too sensitive / too intense / too much”
“That’s a nice hobby — but what will you actually do?”
Every one of these statements comes from a parent who loves their child. Who wants them to be safe, to be secure, to have a future.
But research shows that all that focus on outcome-based standards can squelch a child’s unique form of expression. Even children who love the subject being taught may find their interest dimmed.
Gifts and talents matter because they help children develop a sense of identity and understand that they have value beyond grades or achievements.
When a child’s unique gifts are consistently redirected or dismissed — they do not simply pivot to something else. They begin to doubt the gift itself. They begin to doubt themselves.
What Happens When Wings Are Given Space
Gifted children become talented when you support and encourage them to use their natural abilities to learn, concentrate and practise.
Give children time to discover their natural abilities by themselves. Children like to explore, and they do this better without a parent’s preconceived ideas of where they would like their children to go. Give them time to do what they are interested in without being directly involved — but being there to observe and guide.
Present but not interfering.
This is perhaps the most important phrase in all of parenting research. The parent who gives their child space — who is present, available, warm, and genuinely interested — but who does not direct or impose their vision of what the child should become — is the parent whose child most fully discovers what they actually are.
Most times, our gifts and talents are not far from where our passions are. You can identify your child’s unique abilities by observing what interests and passionates them.
Watch what they love. That is where the wings are.
The Fitrah — And the Parent’s Role in Protecting It
In Islamic understanding, every child’s gifts are not random. They are placed — deliberately, specifically, by Allah ﷻ — as part of that child’s fitrah, their unique natural disposition and calling.
This means that when a parent helps a child discover and develop their gifts, they are not simply doing good parenting.
They are honouring what Allah created.
The parent who understands this asks not “is this useful?” but “is this theirs?”
What This Looks Like in Practice
Observe before you direct.
Before deciding what your child should become, spend time simply watching what they naturally move toward. What do they choose when nobody is choosing for them? What do they return to, again and again, without being asked? That is the gift.
Protect the unusual interests.
The child who is obsessed with insects, or cloud formations, or the mechanics of how things break — may seem to be wasting time. They are not. They are developing the deep curiosity that is the precursor to genuine expertise.
Replace “be realistic” with “tell me more.”
When a child shares a dream that seems impractical, the most developmentally powerful response is curiosity. “Tell me more about that. What is it about that thing that draws you?”
Celebrate effort in their area of passion.
The child who works for three hours on something they love is developing exactly the same persistence that academic success requires — just in a domain that matters to them. Celebrate that. Name it.
How Charades Creates Space for Wings to Open
Charades4Kids is built on the principle:
“Like a grandfather’s story — teaching beautiful lessons for life, through play, not pressure.”
In charades, there are no wrong gifts. The child who is observant wins. The child who is creative wins. The child who is persistent wins. The child who thinks differently wins.
Every kind of intelligence — every kind of gift — has a place in the circle.
And when a child discovers, in the safety of a family game, that their particular way of seeing the world produces results — something opens.
Not a talent. Not a skill. A belief.
The belief that who they are — exactly as they are — is enough.
That is where the wings begin to open.
A Final Word
Every child sitting in your home right now was sent here with something specific inside them.
Not a general human potential. A specific, particular, unrepeatable gift — placed there by the One who made them, in the best of stature, for a purpose that only they can fulfil.
Your job is not to decide what that purpose is.
Your job is to create the conditions in which it can be discovered.
Rumi asked it fourteen centuries ago — and Imran Khan carried that question to a new generation:
“Jab Allah ne tumhein urnay ke liye par diye hain — toh cheenti ki tarah reingty kyun ho?”
The question was not directed at children.
It was directed at us — the parents who hold the scissors.
Put them down. And watch your child fly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is every child born with unique gifts and talents?
Yes. Research confirms that children’s talents are natural gifts they are born with, waiting to be discovered and nurtured. Islamic understanding reinforces this through the concept of fitrah — every child arrives with a unique natural disposition and gifts placed within them by Allah ﷻ. The role of parents is to discover and nurture these gifts, not to impose a predetermined path.
How can parents identify their child’s natural gifts?
Our gifts and talents are not far from where our passions are. Identify your child’s unique abilities by observing what interests and passionates them. Watch what they choose when nobody is directing them. What they return to without being asked. That is where the gift lives.
What happens when a child’s gifts are not recognised or nurtured?
When gifts are consistently dismissed or redirected, children lose confidence in their own instincts and disconnect from what genuinely motivates them. Gifts and talents help children develop a sense of identity and understand they have value beyond grades or achievements.
How should parents respond to a child’s unusual or unconventional interests?
Give children time to discover their natural abilities by themselves. Replace “be realistic” with “tell me more.” Protect what is unusual. Celebrate the effort they put into what they love. The unconventional interest today may be the calling tomorrow.
How does charades support the discovery of a child’s gifts?
Charades creates an environment where every type of intelligence and every kind of gift has value — observation, creativity, persistence, social intelligence, lateral thinking. Every child discovers that their particular way of engaging with the world produces results — the foundational belief that who they are is worth something. That belief is where every wing begins to open.
https://charades4kids.com/blog/stop-raising-your-child-for-a-job